FateRejoice Nightmare
by Hunter XZ
Summary: What if Shirou was found by Kirei instead of Kiritsugu during the fire. This is is the story of Shirou Kotomine, executer and king. Shirou x Fem Gilgamesh/Harem.
1. Rebirth by Falmes

_**Disclaimer:**_

 _ **I own nothing blah blah blah**_

 _ **This is a Shirou Kotomine story.**_

 _ **Fem-Gilgamesh**_

 _ **Prologue**_

My first memory is in hell.

There was fire, everywhere dozens of bodies in every direction, burned and eviscerated. The fire acted as if it were alive. It seemed to reach out to people and grab them, before covering them in its demonic embrace. However, the flames didn't touch me. I mean, Why would it?

I was already dead.

Just a walking corpse, An empty husk of what was once a real, living human being.

There were people all around me, dying people, crying for my help and reaching out towards my direction.

I just kept walking. I had already seen so many people die trying to help others, only to be crushed by rubble or consumed by the flames themselves. Eventually I could not bear it any more and I had to cover my ears so I could prevent myself from hearing the screams, the cries, the pleas for help.

I wouldn't meet the same fate as those people. I would survive.

I was desperate. Desperate to live. My life, it was all I had now.

My family, dead.

My home, destroyed

Even my memories, gone.

My life was all I had left, and I refused to give it up. I walked and walked and kept walking. I stepped over rubble, over trash, and over bodies, trying to escape the unholy inferno around me. My vision was beginning to get blurry and everything was beginning to turn red. My legs were burning from the stress, but I would keep walking. No matter how long it took, I would would keep going. I WOULD SURVIVE.

After what felt like hours, something horrible happened.

I tripped.

I fell flat on my face. I tried with all my might and will to stand up, to get off the ground, to keep walking. But I couldn't. It took all of my willpower just to turn to my back. I looked up at the sky, the black, lifeless sky. I stared at it. It was just sitting there far above the flames and death around my body, yet ever present, as if mocking me and the condition I was currently in.

Was this it. Was this how I was going to die. Just another charred, nameless body amongst the countless others. I was in so much pain. It was agonizing. I was so sad. However, I didn't cry. What point would it serve. It wouldn't give me the strength needed to move, nor would it make my torment any more bearable.

So I simply laid there, waiting for death to take me into his boney yet powerful grip.

However, it seemed like Death wasn't that interested in me just yet. I suddenly saw a man over my decrepit form. He was a tall man, wearing what appeared to be priest attire, at least that's what I assumed it was due to the golden cross around his neck. He had brown hair and dead eyes.

But what really caught my attention was his smile. It was a smile filled with more curiosity than worry or fear. It was also a smile that I instinctively knew no human being should have. This was all I was able to process before unconsciousness seized me.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXCXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I awoke several hours later at the hospital. I opened my eyes, but I still only saw black. It only took took me took me a few seconds to figure out that I must of had bandages covering them. I reached to take the bandages off, but a voice stopped me. "I recommend that you don't do that." I turned my head towards the voice, as pointless as it was with the bandages blocking my vision. "W-who are y-you?" It was when I started talking that I realized how dry my throat was. I didn't know if it was just from being unconsciousness or if it was some kind of after effect from the smoke I inhaled earlier.

Paying no mind to the my stutter, the voice spoke again. "My name is Kirei Kotomine. I am the man who brought you to this hospital. The long story short is that you should make a full recover by the end of the month. The only exception is your eyes, but there's no need to worry. I can acquire some special glasses that can help, but it is probably best that you keep the bandages on until the glasses are ready."

After a moment of silence, I drunk some water and spoke my thoughts. "Why would you help me?"

"Well, I am a man of God after all." I couldn't see him, but I could almost feel the smile on his face. "If I made no attempt to save at least one person from that tragedy, I wouldn't be able to rightfully call myself a priest."

"You don't don't seem like much of a priest to me." I said despite knowing very little about priests or religion as a whole.

"You know, you're not the first person to say that." He said apparently not being the slightest bit hurt by my comment.

The doctor then opened the door walked into the room. He seemed to be behaving in a somewhat rushed manner, probably due to all of the other fire victims he he had he had to head to look after today. I was just another kid in a hospital bed. He proceeded to ask me various questions about myself, to all of which I responded to with, "I don't know." and variations of such. The sole exception being my name which I knew to be Shirou.

After that the doctor left, Kotomine-san gave me an ultimatum. "Well Shirou-kun, at this point you seem to have two options in front of you. Being that your parents are undoubtedly dead, the first option is that you go on towards the orphanage and live a dull life of quiet peace and normalcy. The second is that you agree to come with the _kind_ _hearted_ stranger in front of you for a life full of uncertainty, confusion, and chaos." He said the 'kind hearted' sarcastically, like he believed more than anyone that that statement was in no way even remotely true.

I thought about it for a minute before responding. "Well, I guess the latter option seems to be the more interesting of the two."

The Kotomine smirked. "Perfect"


	2. Golden Radiance

**Chapter 2: The Makings of a King**

 **Shirou meets Gilgamesh**

* * *

 _ ***One Week Later***_

It's been about a week since Kirei officially adopted Shirou and boy had finally been released from the hospital. It had taken quite some coaxing from Kirei to get them to allow a boy who couldn't see to leave, but he managed to convince them.

The boy's new father had brought him some clothes to change into after his release. Appropriate considering that all of the clothes he had been wearing when he entered the hospital were half burnt and covered in an odd combination of mud, blood and some gunk that he really didn't want to know about. The red haired boy was now wearing a simple short-sleeved black shirt and pair of long, gray jeans, complemented by brown loafers. He was also still wearing the bandages over his eyes.

They were on their way to the Kotomine Church, Shirou's new home. The brown haired man did no favors for the red haired boy whose eyes were still covered up. Because of his lack of sight and the older man's lack of care to help, Shirou was forced to navigate entirely by sound, listening to his new father's footsteps. He managed to stop hitting things after about ten minutes, which would impress most.

"We've been walking for like 20 minutes already. Where is this place?" Shirou asked in a irritated tone.

"Actually, we're here." Kirei said as the approached the ominus building. "Well, tell me, how do you like it?"

Shirou moved his head questioningly. "You are aware that you're asking a person who can't see his opinion on how something looks right?" Shirou asked wondering if the man next to him was serious.

"Oh, that reminds me," Kirei started as he reached into his pocket, "Your glasses arrived the other day." He then pulled out a normal looking pair of glasses. He handed them to the redhead.

"Wait a minute, so you've had these all day and you still let my walk for almost a mile blind?" Shirou was currently wearing a 'What the fuck?' expression on his face.

"My apologize, " Kirei said in a way that almost sounded sarcastic, "they totally slipped my mind until now."

Shirou simply sighed as he undid the bandages around his eyes. As he opened his eyes, he was amazed. He remembered how things looked to him while he was in the fire. Everything was so much clearer to him now. It was almost like the world was in slow motion and his brain was working at a hundred miles a minute. 'If it's like this now,' Shirou thought, 'I wonder what it's gonna be like after I put the glasses on.' So he did just that, and as fast as the earlier sensation came, it left. Time returned to normal and his brain was reading the world one word at a time again. Confused the boy looked up at his father. "Hey, I thought these were suppose to make my eyes better."

Answering the unasked question, the brown haired man replied, "They're suppose to make your vision 'normal', not necessarily better."

Now that Shirou had the bandages off, he could see the smirk on Kirei's face. He didn't really know why, but it seriously annoyed him. With a sigh, Shirou looked at the church. Immediately, he knew that something was wrong with it. For a church the place gave off an aura that was oddly demonic. Shirou sighed, "Well I guess this is my life now.

* * *

 _ ***Two Days Later***_

Shirou opened his eyes to see the sun. He quickly shut them again and sat up in his bed. "Man, I've got to move my bed. The sun shines right on my face." He mumbled as he grabbed the glasses on his bedside and put them on. The redhead stood up from his bed and headed to the kitchen to make some breakfast. It turned out that Shirou had a natural talent when it came to cooking. With no memories, everything was just trial and error for him, and he was lucky enough to find something that he was actually good at right away.

 _Dear my disrespectful son,_

 _There are several funerals today that I have to sermon, so I will not be getting back until later tonight. I leave you in charge of the church in my absence._

 _-From Kirei Kotomine_

 _P.S. There is some leftover Mapo Tofu in the refrigerator in case you feel the need to eat._

"Yeah, sure, leave a 7 year old who's lived here for 2 days in charge of the entire building. [Sigh] Just what I would expect from the guy." There was absolutely no way he was going to eat any of that extra spicy tofu his dad made. He wanted to still be able to use his taste buds by the time he hit puberty.

Shirou quickly made himself a simple breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast. 'Well it seems that cooking is one talent that I have.' He thought to himself as he placed a plate of food on the dining room table before heading back to the kitchen to clean up. Placing what he wasn't going to eat into the fridge for later he walked back towards the dining room only to hear the unmistakable sound of a fork hitting a plate. A he entered the room he found something that he didn't expect.

It was a girl.

But not just any girl. One look and Shirou could tell that this girl wasn't normal. She was around his age, maybe a year or two older. She had glorious blonde hair and hair that extended to the top of her thighs and her eyes were a excellent blood-like crimson. Her attire consisted of a pair of green camouflage shorts and a gold trimmed blue shirt that exposed her midriff. Over this was a simple white hooded sweat jacket. All in all, she was an extremely beautiful girl.

However, the thing that gathered most of Shirou's attention was what she was doing. She was sitting at the table with a serene and blissful expression on her face. And she was eating the food on the table. Shirou's food. The food that he spent half an hour preparing. "You know, most people consider it rude to eat someone else's food without permission." Shirou sad loudly, making sure that she heard him. The blonde girl looked in his direction for the first time, a look of surprise on her face. The multiple food crumbs on her face made it clear that she hadn't bothered with a napkin. It was kinda cute. The same way a puppy chasing its tail is cute. Completely stupid, but you couldn't help but smile when you saw it. Shirou was no exception. "You might want to wipe off your face a bit." He said.

The girl looked confused. Then suddenly she blushed and quickly grabbed a napkin, proceeding to hurriedly wipe her face with it. "Oh, pardon me." She spoke with a smile. "I was just so enraptured by the smell that before I knew it, I had already begun eating. You are truly a magnificent chef. I have never had a meal quite like this even during my rule."

Shirou looked at her with a blank stare. 'What does she mean by rule?' He sighed. "Well whatever, I try not to get irritated by stuff like this. One must be able to overlook the small blotches of irritation to be able to perceive the full image. Me getting upset does nobody any good." 'Besides, I've got extras in the refrigerator.' He sat down.

"Oh, how kind of you Mister" She spoke, still wearing the same smile. "But I feel that I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't give you something in return." When she finished speaking, a golden ripple formed in the air behind her, greatly perplexing the redheaded boy.

'What exactly am I looking at?' he asked himself in confusion. Before he could asked the question out loud, a golden vase came out of the portal and was quickly grabbed by the girl.

"This Mister," she gestured to the vase, "is some of the best wine that history has ever, or will ever see. Please accept it as an apology for eating your food earlier." She stretched the arm with the wine out, obviously wanting Shirou to take it.

Shirou gave the wine a blank stare before speaking. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm underaged. I don't drink alcohol."

The girl seemed surprised, before she pulled empty hand up to her chin and a look of understanding graced her face. "Ah, yes, that is a law in this time isn't it. My bad then." As she spoke, the vase of wine turned into of golden dust and disappeared. "Well, since it's an apology for pertaining to food, a culinary based gift doesn't seem to far out of place." Another golden ripple appeared, and out of it came a large white cloth. " This is the Tablecloth of the North Wind. With a simple chant, You can summon the most glorious foods with little to no effort on your part."

Shirou looked at the cloth, and, unlike the last gift, he thought about it. "Hmm, no. Sorry, but I happen to enjoy cooking. If I could just summon food whenever, I would lose the opportunities to master something that I find relaxing and fun."

The girl seemed more surprised at this, but remained undeterred. "Very well," as the table cloth disappeared the same way as the wine, the girl summon some glass bottles filled with various powders, flakes, and liquids. "If you enjoy cooking than these spices and herbs should be pleasing. They are some of the rarest in the world. I'm quite sure that a few of these don't even exist anymore."

"Hmmmm," Shirou hummed, "definitely tempting, but my cooking still has room to improve. If these spices are as rare as you say, than I would feel terrible if I wasted then on dishes full of flaws"

The girl looked at him skeptically. "Huh, alright I understand. Even if I don't totally agree with your cooking needing improvement. Okay, how about-"

 _ ***45 minutes Later***_

"A spear that always pierces the heart." the blond girl spoke as she pulled out a red spear.

"Seems kinda brutal for conventional use, doesn't it?" the redhead responded.

"Alright then, how about cloak that perfectly will hide your presence?" a black cloak emerged from another golden ripple in space.

"I'd rather learn to conceal my presence naturally, instead of relying on some tool, if it's all the same to you."

She then summoned a golden machine. "How about a machine that can turn even the most poisonous meats into delectable cuisine?"

"Yeah, I'd rather not take a chance with poisonous meat either way."

Gilgamesh, or "Gil" as she prefered, was very perplexed by the boy. He was a conundrum to her. Not since she met her friend Enkidu had she had such a hard time understanding what someone was thinking. That was honestly one of the reasons why she was so disappointed by the modern world. Humans now a days were just so easy to see through. There were so many of them and most of them had the same intentions: money, fame, power, woman. The same old boring stuff. It was no wonder that such a great amount of people ended up being useless.

But this boy. He didn't seem to be after anything. She had offered him items that 99.99% of modern people would eagerly kill for, and he turned it all down without batting an eye. And true, while his reasons seemed logical, she just didn't see the values of the pros vs the cons being close enough not to take most of the weapons, artifacts, and treasures. Hell, she could even feel her older version empathizing with her confusion towards the boy in the back of her head. And those two didn't get along about anything.

But there had to be something this boy wanted. She wasn't going to lie to herself, at this point it was more about her pride than than a token of forgiveness. "There must be something that you crave. Tell me and I will acquire it." Normally, she would never offer herself to do a favor like that, but this boy's lack of care for the items in her treasury had managed to wear her down.

"Hmm," the boy hummed, " Well to be honest, I can't think of anything. I'm an amnesiac 7 year old boy with pretty much no drive in life other than to trying and enjoy it. The most I could really ask for is someone to talk to. A friend I guess." He finished, not thinking about the implications of his words.

Gil looked at him oddly. 'A friend? Is that all he wants? All of the world's greatest treasures at his fingertips and he simply wants a friend?' Her mind suddenly flashed to a memory:

* * *

 _There was a beautiful young woman with golden hair and crimson eyes, sitting on a solid gold throne. She looked over her kingdom with a look of annoyance. She had in her possession quite literally everything that the world had to offer, yet why wasn't she happy? Was there something she was missing? That shouldn't be the case. Her life was as fulfilled, more so than humanly possible. So why could she not wear a true smile upon her gorgeous face?_

 _Suddenly, her heard someone walk into her throne room and turned around to see who dares to enter her palace without permission, but the words died in her throat. She was very surprised by the person's appearance. It was impossible to tell their true gender due to the combination of baggy clothing and face that could pass for either a beautiful woman or a handsome man, not leaning at all to either side. The guest had long, flowing, green hair and matching eyes, but what really caught Gilgamesh's attention was the look upon the intruder's face. It was an odd look that said something along the lines of, "I am not entirely sure why I am doing this". The intruder walked a bit closer to the king before speaking. "Hello, King Gilgamesh. My name is Enkidu. The gods have apparently seen it fit to send me to punish you."_

* * *

This boy.

This boy that did not care for any object, no matter how powerful.

This boy just wanted a companion in this world in which they can put their trust.

At this point Gil had a large smile upon her face. Not the normal, amused smile that she usually wore in her child form, but a true honest mile that showed nothing but joy and care. It was a smile that she hadn't worn in millennia, not since Enkidu, her best, and to-date, only friend, had died.

Making up her mind, the blond haired girl stood up, walked to the redheaded boy, and offered her him her hand. "Well if that is what you want. Then I believe that I would have no problem being your friend. What do you say?"

The boy looked at her strangely. Obviously, trying to get her to be his friend was not his intention, but he didn't seem to be complaining. He smiled and took her hand, shaking it, softly at first, but firmly after noticing the strength of her grip. "I would like that. Oh, now that I think about it, we haven't introduced ourselves yet. My name is Kotomine, Kotomine Shirou."

'Kotomine?' She thought. 'Does Kirei-san have a child?' "Well Shirou-kun, it's nice to meet you. My name is Gilgamesh. You may call me Gil."

And with that a beutiful and life changing relationship had begun for Shirou Kotomine. It was the first of many that would soon come to his life, but definitely the most prevalent and would set the groundwork for all that he will become.

(A/N: I honestly thought of ending it here, but then I thought, "Nah")

* * *

 _ ***Several Hours Later**_

"Kirei Kotomine was returning to the church after a long day of sermoning funeral. 'Hmm, this is going to be particularly long few weeks. With all of the deaths in the fire, I'm going to be busy. But it's actually kind of ironic. After all, I'm partially responsible for all of those deaths, and now it's my job to bless the souls of the dead as they enter heaven. Not only that, but I also managed to find a child in that lovely blaze. He has good enough magic circuits. What should I do with him? I could make him a prana battery for Gilgamesh-sama. He doesn't really seem to trust me, so it will be slightly more difficult to get him to play along with any scenes that I might have. Well, I suppose that I'll have to figure that out at a later date.' He finished his thoughts as he opened the doors to the church to see a very unexpected sight.

"Checkmate" A woman said as she moved a white pawn piece forward. She was quite an attractive woman. With long golden blonde hair and piercing crimson eyes. Her attire consisted of simple long sleeved white v-neck shirt and tight brown pants that ended at her mid-calf. She wore elegant flat-footed white shoes. Finally, she wore golden jewelry in the form of a necklace and earrings.

"Ahh, I see," the glasses wearing redhead said as he looked at the board, "even a simple pawn can decide the outcome of a game if used properly."

The girl smirked and crossed her arms. "Correct, you are learning well" she spoke.

"Okay," the boy said, "but did you really have to beat me sixteen times in a row to teach me the importance of every individual piece."

"Well, perhaps I over did it slightly, but you learnt what I was trying to teach you. It's a very important lesson if you want to be able to properly command groups. It was also to remind you exactly who the teacher is."

Kirei was perplexed by what he was seeing. True, he half expected his adopted son to run into Gilgamesh while he was away, but he hadn't for the king of heroes to apparently take a liking to the boy. "Well, well, what seems to be happening here?" Kirei asked as he walked up to the duo.

They turned in his direction. Gilgamesh then turned back to Shirou and spoke. "Well Shirou-kun, I believe that that is all for today, you may go."

"Alright then, see you later then Gil-chan" at her words the boy collected the chess pieces and proceeded deeper into the building.

The former king of the world turned back to the priest and began to speak. "Oh, hello Kirei-san. As you saw, I was just teaching Shirou-kun a very important lesson."

The elder Kotomine tilted his head slightly in confusion. "Well, please pardon my forwardness, but I am a bit curious as to why you would decide to do that, you majesty. It seems somewhat out of character for you to bother teaching someone something unless it served as a means to amuse yourself."

Gil smirked. "Well Kirei-san, if you must know, I have decided to turn that boy into a king, suitable to rule beside me. While my kingdom was without doubt a great one, I ruled it in solitude and loneliness before I met Enkidu and it got worse after my friend died. I've decided that when I eventually reclaim this world, I want to be able to share it with someone close to me." She then stood up and pointed to the man. "So as Shirou's new father I expect you to teach him all that I cannot. You are admittedly strong for a human. And I will not allow my friend to rot down on the earth surrounded by hordes of mongrels while I stand so close to the heavens that I can't even distinguish him anymore. Do not fail me Kirei Kotomine, or I might have have to reconsider allowing you to live, even if it is only for my amusement." With those words, she walked away, leaving an amused and slightly confused Kirei.

'Well, I guess I know what to do with little Shirou-kun now.' The brown haired man thought to himself with a smile.


	3. New Freinds and New Family

**Chapter 3**

 **Shirou meets two interesting young girls and learns a bit more about the Kotomine family.**

* * *

"Come on Shirou-kun you have to do better than that." Kirei Kotomine said as he blocked yet another punch from his son.

"Right" Shirou said as he went for a kick to the man's side, only to be dodged when his father stepped back. I had been about two weeks since Gilgamesh had basically threatened Kirei to train Shirou, and even Kirei had to admit that the boy's progress was remarkable. He had managed to get the basics of regular balquin down in less than a week and Kirei was now teaching him some of the more advanced moves before he began to teach Shirou how to add magecraft to his attacks to make super balquin.

The golden king herself was off on what she called "A short trip see what this new world has to offer". She hadn't been clear about when she'd return, but judging by how she said she was planning to observe Shirou's progress upon her return, it wouldn't be extremely long. Shirou seemed to be sad at her departure, but the brown haired man couldn't be sure.

Kirei would probably be the first to admit that he did not truly understand how his son thought. The boy just didn't seem to have too much of a passion for anything. It was different than how Kirei used to be. Kirei had always known to some degree what had made him happy and simply didn't fully accept it until recently, going out of his way to try and find some other way to find joy. Shirou on the other hand seemed understand what gave him joy and consciously decided not to care. Whether it was that the young redhead felt like there were better things to do or he just wanted to see what else could fill the hole, Kirei had no idea. Shirou was a very confusing boy. The brown haired man still remembered how easily the 7-year old accepted the existence of magecraft and the truth surrounding the moonlit world:

* * *

 _ ***Two Weeks Ago***_

 _Shirou was sitting in one of the church pues, reading The Bible. Shirou figured that if he was going to be living with a priest, then he would at least need to have some opinion on the book that his father's religion was based upon. So far, he found it mildly interesting. He was in no way going to become a devout follower of god, but he could at least see how others could "find God"._

 _The redhead wasn't just interested in Christianity, no, Shirou wanted to learn everything he could about all religions. With each religion came different myths, different gods, and different heroes. Shirou had no idea about how much of each religion or mythology was true, but it didn't her to know a little about everything._

 _Kirei walked into the room, his normal smile plastered on his face. "Hey Shirou-kun, what would you say if I told you that I was a magus and that I could teach you how to use magecraft?" The older Kotomine suddenly asked his son._

 _Shirou allowed his eyes to leave his book and looked up at his father blandly for a second before responding. "Even though I have amnesia, I can say with the utmost certainty that you are the least preist-like priest that I have ever met." Shirou then lowered his head and proceeded to continue to read his book, as if the last several seconds never happened._

 _Kirei looked at his son oddly, not expecting that reaction. "So, would you like for me to teach you?" The brown haired man asked._

" _Gil-chan did mention that magecraft would be a useful skill to learn." Shirou said as he turned a page. "I have no real reason to refuse."_

" _Perfect," Kirei said, "but let me warn you, your life will be in danger constantly. As the expression goes, "A magus walks with death"". Kirei warned._

" _I see no problem with that." Shirou said bluntly. "Gil-chan said that I should never give up an opportunity to learn something new, so I will learn magecraft and use it as I see fit. If I see something that can be useful to me, I'll make an attempt at learning it, it not, then why should I concern myself with it?"_

" _I see," Kirei stated, "So you wish to be a spellcaster then?"_

" _Whatever you call it is irrelevant. As long as the result is the same I don't see any real importance in the title."_

* * *

For the most part, Shirou seemed to be the kind of person that did not do something if he didn't see the point in it. The glasses wearing boy also appeared to have an extremely high opinion of the King of Heroes, even if they had only met once. Well, that's A+ Rank Charisma for someone like Shirou who didn't really have a role model, Gilgamesh fit the part perfectly. The boy was also extremely blunt, having no problem making his opinions known, no matter how derogatory those thoughts were.

To be honest, Kirei was actually slightly worried about the inevitable meeting of his son and Rin Tohsaka. One disrespectful student at a time was more than enough in his opinion. He was so distracted by his thoughts that he almost didn't notice his son's fist going for his stomach. Almost.

The man quickly caught his son's outstretched arm and used it along with the boy's own momentum to pull the redhead in closer before kneeing the him in the chest. He didn't hit Shirou hard enough to cause any permanent damage, obviously, but it was still hard enough to leave a good sized bruise along with a cracked rib or two. Due to his proficiently in healing magecraft and Shirou's natural resilience, Kirei could afford to be a little rough with the kid as long as he did not cause too much damage. "Good plan," he calmly spoke to the boy who was currently on all fours on the ground, gasping for air, "attacking while your opponent is distracted, but next time try to do something a little less obvious. Now come over here so I can heal you, we have somewhere important to go today."

Shirou, still panting, got up and managed to limp to the man before falling on his butt. Kirei took his shirt off, exposing a nasty looking purple bruise beginning to form, and proceeded to begin healing it. When the boy could finally speak again, he began with a question. "You said the "we" have somewhere to go today right? Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the first time that you've taken me anywhere since I was adopted. What's the occasion."

Seeing that his son was in decent condition again, the man stopped healing him. "Well, you see, I am in charge of two funerals today." Kirei began. "While I normally wouldn't bring you along with me for something so tedious, these two are somewhat special."

"Special?" Shirou inquired.

"Quite" The older Kotomine said. "The first is for my father, your grandfather, Risei Kotomine. The second is for my teacher, Tokiomi Tohsaka."

This surprised Shirou. The casual tone in which he spoke about the funerals would not lead one to believe that they were for people that he knew. The only indication that these two people were in any way different to him than all of the others amongst the dead was his smile. His normal smile seemed to fall slightly at the mention of his father, but came it then back with renewed vigor as he spoke of his teacher. Despite noticing this, Shirou didn't understand the meaning behind it and decided not to bother asking. The best that the boy could guess was that his relationship with his teacher must have ended on a somewhat low note.

"We will be leaving in about an hour." Kirei started. "I already have some formal clothing prepared for you in your room." The man began to walk out of the training he reached the door, he slightly turned back to his son. "Oh, and Shirou-kun, please do be on your best behavior."

* * *

 _ ***One Hour Later***_

'This suit is uncomfortable.' Shirou thought to himself as he walked with his father into the cemetery.

"Now, Shirou-kun, I have to go and prepare the finishing touches, so feel free to walk around and interact with people. And remember, be nice." Kirei spoke to his son before walking off.

"Well I suppose that this is a good opportunity to try and find some people who knew my apparent grandfather." The redhead said to himself. He walked around aimlessly for a few minutes. "This is getting me nowhere." He decided. He then turned around to begin walking back, only to bump into someone. "Oh my apologies." He apologized.

"Oh, no, it's entirely alright. I should have been looking where I was going." The man stood out quite easily among the other people there. He had stark white hair that pointed upwards and a deep tan. He wore black priest attire not too dissimilar from Kirei's and the ensemble was completed by a golden cross around his neck. "Though I admit that I am surprised. I did not expect to run into someone so young here, have you lost someone as well?" The man inquired bluntly.

Shirou shrugged. "I guess you could say that. He was apparently my grandfather, but I think that it would be more accurate to call him my father's father.

"Hmm" The man hummed, clearly amused. "Well, why is that?"

"Simply put I got adopted recently, so I never even heard of the man until today. I don't particularly care about his death, but since I'm related to him, it would be disrespectful if I didn't at least show up."

The man nodded his head. "Fair enough. Well it was a pleasure speaking with you…."

"Oh thats right, I never introduced myself, my name is Shirou, Kotomine Shirou."

The man's eyes seemed to widen slightly at this, before the settling back into his calm, amused look. "Well that's interesting. My name is Kotomine Shirou as well." the man said, genuinely surprising the boy. "You said that you were adopted, was it Kirei-kun who adopted you? I don't recall Risei-san having any other relatives."

"Umm, yes," Shirou responded, still a bit surprised by their shared name. "Kirei is now my father, but I'm curious, what exactl-"

"Shirou-kun," a voice said. Both Shirous turned to see Kirei walking towards them with his signature creepy smile. "The service is about to begin, you should get ready." The brown haired man the noticed the white haired one. "Well, Shirou-san it has been quite a while."

The tanned skinned man seemed a bit surprised by Kirei's smile, but nonetheless returned one of his own. "Yes, it truly has. As you can see, I already ran into Shirou-kun here. I was quite surprised that you went as far as to name child after me, considering how little time we have spent together."

Kirei chuckled. "No, no, that was merely a coincidence. Shirou was already his name the only change that I made was giving him the surname "Kotomine"."

The two spoke back and forth calmly enough, but Shirou could feel the slight tenseness in the atmosphere. Finally, he had enough. "Not that I don't enjoy hearing about the ironic nature of my name, but would either of you please tell me exactly what your relation to each other is."

The older Shirou looked down at the younger on with a smile. "Well, Shirou-kun, it's quite simple. I am Kirei-san's older brother. Risei-san adopted me many years ago. I suppose that that is something else that we have in common."

This surprises Shirou. 'This man is the older brother? He looks younger than Kirei. Also that fact that they're brothers. Just how much of the old man's past don't I know. But more importantly, ' the smaller Shirou turned his head towards his newly discovered uncle. 'what's with his presence? While certainly not as overwhelming as Gil-chan's, it's definitely similar.' They stood there in silence for a moment before the youngest Kotomine decided to speak again. "Alright then, later." He then walked away.

Kirei sighed. "That boy, not even waiting for his father." He then followed after the boy.

The white haired Shirou stood in silence for a minute before frowning. "So, it seems that Kirei-kun has become aware of his distortion. That's unfortunate. I wish that young boy luck."

* * *

 _ ***An Hour and ½ Later***_

The funeral had been pretty boring, in Shirou's opinion at least. He really didn't see the point. Don't get him wrong. He understood that the funeral was more to give family and friends closer, but some people just went on and on. He didn't need five people going to the stand to say the same things: "He was a good man", "He was very reliable", "I wish him luck on the other side". It was so irritating. If you have nothing new, contributive, or interesting to say, then you're wasting your own and everyone else's time.

Anyway, Risei Kotomine's funeral was finally over. Kirei said that Shirou had two hours to walk around before the other guy's started. So that's what he was doing. He wanted to look for someone anyway. He had noticed her while sitting through the funeral. She was the one other person his age that was there. Shirou felt like that was enough reason to talk to her.

After about 5 minutes of walking around, he saw person of his interest. She was a cute girl. Her hair was a long silver and her eyes were a dazzling gold, just slightly lighter than Shirou's own. "Hello there" The redhead spoke in attempt to garner her attention. His attempt was successful.

She turned towards him and looked at him with a bored expression. "Yes?" She responded.

"I noticed you at the funeral. You were the only other person there who wasn't fully grown. You didn't seem that interested in talking to older people either, so I figured I might as well say hi."

The girl stared at a shirou for a minute before responding. "So the lonely little boy wanted to talk to the girl cute enough cute enough to happen to draw his attention because he didn't fit in." She stated bluntly.

"Essentially" Shirou responded. The girl's eyes widened slightly, surprised that he wasn't at all put off by the obviously demeaning comment. "I'm Kotomine Shirou by the way. I believe that it's common courtesy that you introduce yourself now."

"Caren, Hortensia Caren." She responded. "So, you're a Kotomine? Are you perhaps related to the latest corpse in the ground." She asked again trying to irritate the boy.

Shirou shrugged. "You could say that. One of his sons adopted me a little while ago. What about you? Why are you here?"

Caren looked at him for a moment before answering. "Like you, that man was my grandfather."

Her answer caused Shirou to think. 'So he was her grandfather too. She must be the daughter of the other Shirou. They have similar hair and eye colors. Though their skin tones are completely. Different.'

"So is that it or do you still wish to continue this unnecessary conversation and waste both of our time." Caren asked.

"Well unnecessary and time consuming as this conversation may be, it at least does at least seem somewhat pleasurable, doesn't it?" He responded without skipping a beat.

A small smile adorned the silver haired girl's face. "Well, I suppose that it does."

The two spoke to each other for a solid hour and a half before Shirou realized that he needed to go back to the funeral and departed, leaving the girl to her own devices.

* * *

 ***Two Hours Later***

'Finally, I'm done. That was so tedious.' Shirou thought to himself as he walked around the cemetery in an attempt to find his father. After looking for several minutes Shirou found Kirei. He was talking to a young girl about Shirou 's age. The first had blue-green eyes and black hair that was tied up in twin tails. Shirou decided to walk towards them and see what it was that they were talking about.

"I'm telling you you fake priest!" The girl yelled angrily, "I don't need your help to learn magecraft. I can do it all on my own."

"Yes, Rin-chan, you keep saying that." Kirei said to the now identified Rin. "But your father entrusted me to be you magecraft instructor if anything ever happened to him. I was his student after all." Kirei then seemed to notice Shirou's presence. "Oh hello Shirou-kun."

"Hello," Shirou responded. "Might I be inclined to know what is happening right now?" He asked.

"Oh, that's right, you two haven't been introduced yet. Shirou-kun, this is Rin Tohsaka, her father is the man who we just had the funeral for. Rin-chan, this is Shirou Kotomine. I adopted him as my son a few weeks ago. Please do try to get along." Kirei said.

Rin looked towards Shirou with a scrutinizing expression. "So the fake priest adopted you huh. I feel bad for you."

"Thank you, I suppose." Shirou said. "But why do you call him a fake priest?"

"Oh come on." Rin said irritably. "Can you see the guy? Aside from his clothes there's nothing about him that's priest like."

"That may be the case," Shirou countered. "But he is still recognized as a priest and fulfils all of the duties that go along with that title. All because someone might not fit into the role that they play in life very well doesn't mean that they aren't actually playing that role."

'I'm not sure if he's standing up for me or insulting me.' The elder Kotomine thought to himself.

"Besides," Shirou continued, "you seem to be somewhat brash and hotheaded individual, yet if you're a Tohsaka, then you're a practitioner of magecraft, something that requires much patience and a calm mind. That doesn't make you a fake magus does it?"

The twin tailed girl stood in silence for a moment before she finally found her voice. "Who are you calling brash and hotheaded!? And fake magus!? I'll have you know that I am an average one and am extremely talented for my age! Who the hell do you think you are!?"

"Calm down." Shirou said calmly. "I wasn't trying to insult you. I was simply attempting to….."

Kirei watched the children interact. His son had urged an amusing reaction out of Rin immediately. He could tell that it was going to be interesting watching these two interact. It might also be bad for his health.

* * *

 **And that's it**

 **I hope you all liked it.**

 **Remember to leave comments.**

 **Next time, Shirou does his first job and makes some new friends**


	4. Shirou's 1st Mission

**Just to make it clear:**

" **Talking"**

 **'Thoughts'**

" _ **English"**_

 **There's going to be a good amount of english in this chapter.**

 **The Flashback is also Italicized.**

 **This chapter, I get to show off a bit of what Shirou has learned and I finally reveal the secret behind his eyes.**

* * *

 _ ***Two Years Later - Austria***_

A nine year old Shirou walked in silence. He currently wore standard black priest vestments along with brown shoes. On his never was a small bronze crucifix. If he was honest with himself, the young boy was bored out of his mind. He turned his head to see the person walking next to him.

It was a young girl, only a few years shy of officially being considered a woman. She wore a brown business suit with black gloves and boots. An interesting quality about her was her fuchsia colored eyes and hair that was cut to avoid her face, which was accented by a beauty mark underneath her left eye. Her name was Bazett Fraga McRemitz and she was currently the person in charge of Shirou's well-being.

"Hey Bazett-san," Shirou began, "are you sure that your really a friend of my father?" He asked bluntly.

The girl gave him a sideways look. "Well "friend" might be stretching it abit. We've only worked together on a few cases. We're more like casual acquaintances." She concluded. "If you're curious about it why are you asking now instead of earlier?"

"I had more important things then my father's interpersonal relationships on my mind up until recently." He stated simply. "It just my father doesn't seem like the type of person who has friends."

The Fraga looked forward. "Well, your father has definitely changed since I last met him."

"Really?" Shirou's interest was piqued.

The girl nodded her head. "Yeah, in fact simply adopting a child doesn't seem like something that was in character for him." Her hand reach up to hold her chin in thought. "But his personality seems to have had a major change, or maybe I should say that he actually has a personality now."

"What do you mean?" Shirou asked.

Bazet looked back at the young Kotomine."Well simply put, back when I first met Kirei-san, he seemed like the type of person that was stuck searching for something. However; now it's like he's just trying to have fun with something but isn't entirely sure how. Between just the two of us, I found him a bit weird before, but now he seems outright creepy." She said with a shiver.

"I see" Shirou said. "So if that's the case, why did you bother to take me with you?"

The young Fraga seemed surprised by the question. "Well I try to be a good person, and I was wondering what would make a person like Kirei-san ask someone else for help." She said somewhat proudly before looking away. "Plus, your father offered to pay me and I kinda needed the money, but that's besides the point." She spoke quickly, trying to push aside her monetary issues.

"Paying someone to take a nine year old on a mission like this," Shirou said to himself, "Either my dad has a surprising amount of confidence in me, or he really wants me to get myself killed."

"Speaking of which," Bazett began, some concern leaking into her voice, "are you sure that you're up for this? This is kinda big for your first mission, and your not even an official executor yet. Heck according to your father, you just became an executor in-training a few months ago."

"I believe that I can handle myself at this point." Shirou stated without any noticeable hint of arrogance. "If I can't, then I'm really not worth all of the effort that was put into teaching me. Anyway, it's too late to turn back. We're here."

The duo approached the the small makeshift base camp on.

* * *

 _ ***Fuyuki City - Church***_

"Hey, Fake Priest," Rin asked her magecraft teacher, "where's Shirou-kun? He was suppose to spar with me today."

"Oh, yes," the elder Kotomine spoke, "I forgot to tell you. You will not be seeing Shirou-kun around her for the next couple of days."

"And why's that?" Rin asked irritably.

The man gave her his normal smile. "Well you see, yesterday, I sent Shirou-kun off with an old colleague of mine to go on his first dead apostle hunt." The Tohsaka's mouth dropped at this. Seemingly ignoring his student's reaction Kirei spoke again. "I believe he should be somewhere in Austria right about now."

"YOU SENT HIM TO KILL A DEAD APOSTLE!? The black haired girl screamed at the man. "BUT HE'S ONLY NINE!"

"And what if it?" Kirei asked. "It's not like he's going to be alone. Besides, I myself wasn't much older when I went on my first mission, and look how I turned out." As he finished, Kirei spread his arms wide, as if presenting himself to his student.

Rin looked at him as if he just declared that a slug man would successfully take over the world. **(A/N: Anyone get that reference?)** However, the look on her face quickly changed to one of anger. "If my friend comes back traumatized, I swear to the Root that I will end you." She stated angrily.

"Oh don't worry Rin-chan, I have faith in my son's abilities." The man said. 'Besides, if Shirou-kun comes back with anything more than some bruises and scratches, I'm going to be worrying more about a certain golden archer rather than a temperamental little girl.' He thought to himself.

* * *

 _ ***Austria***_

A man stood on top of a podium. In front of him was a group of enforcers and executors in their small base camp. A group enforcers stood to the left of him while a group executors stood to his right. The man coughed in his hand to gather attention before he began to speak. " _Okay, so one week ago, a team of enforcers were sent by Clocktower to take out a sealing designate."_ The man pulled out a large photo of an elegant looking pale man with blonde hair and green eyes. " _His name is Anton Dumestski, a fourth generation magus from a lesser known family. He wasn't considered to be a high priority target at the time so only five enforcers were sent to deal with him. However, somehow he caught wind of the operation and managed to turn himself into a ghoul and the rest of the town into his familiars before the enforcers arrived. Out of the five that were sent, only one man managed to make it back to the Mage Association and report, and even so, he was an arm and leg short of what is typically considered normal._

 _Seeing the issue at hand the Mage Association has sent 18 enforcers to quell the threat. Simultaneously, since the Church has more experience with dead apostles, the Church has sent 14 able bodied executioners to assist. I assume that you two groups should have no problems working with each other in this situation._

 _Anton Dumestski's magecraft specializes in increasing an object's kinetic energy. Basically, he can speed up objects he that he comes in contact with at will. If possible, it would be optimal to kill him before he gets the chance to use his magecraft. Any other relevant information can be found in the files that were provided for you._

 _The estimated population of this town was roughly 15,000 humans before Dumestski began infecting people. Now, however, the population is only about 4,500 of the dead. It seems Dumestski wasn't able to control himself after he turned, and went on a bloodlust fueled rampage, killing most of the town's occupants._

 _We will begin the operation at 1500 hours, approximately 2 hours from now. You all have that time to prepare yourself both physically and mentally. Your are all dismissed until then_." The man stepped off of the podium. Some people went back to their individual tents, not interested in company. Others began to interact with each other, some people recognizing one another.

Shirou, seeing Bazett walking towards him, moved to meet her halfway.

"So, Shirou-kun, did you get all of that?" Bazett asked the young redhead. "It was all in English so I wasn't sure if you caught it all.

"It was fine." Shirou said. "Aside from Japanese, I already know English, Chinese and a small amount of Latin."

Bazett looked at him oddly. "That's interesting and all, but why do you feel like I need to know all of that?"

Shirou looked at her blankly. "The way that I see it, to truly be able to oversee the world, one must be able to understand the world. Knowing the various languages of it is simply a starting point."

Bazett looked at him oddly. "I'm not sure-"

" _Well, what's this_?" The Fraga was cut off by a male voice. Shirou turned around to see a man approaching them. He had curly black hair and blue eyes. He wasn't big, only being about 5'7, but he was sharply dressed, wearing a white suit with matching gloves. The man walked forward, until he was right in front of Shirou.

" _What are you doing here Samson_?" Bazett asked in english, clearly irritated by the man's presence.

" _What does it look like_ _ **Fraga**_ _?"_ He said Fraga is if it were some kind of insult. " _I came here to take out the sealing designate, like I assume you did. I was just surprised to see you talking to this little brat here._ " The man, Samson, bent down to look at Shirou. " _You don't look like a Fraga, in fact from looks alone, I'd say that you one of those Asian Hicks._ "

Shirou, in return, simply sent lazy glance the man's way.

The white wearing man didn't take that well. " _Well is that anyway to look at your superior brat. I happen to be a 6th generation magus, and this is my twelfth time hunting a sealing designate. A little church rat like you should honored by the chance to work with me_." The man reach out to grab Shirou's shoulder.

" _Don't touch me_." Shirou said. " _In the roughly 45 seconds since I met you, you have been nothing but rude and arrogant, spitting out facts that I really don't care about. You have left a particularly bad first impression, and as it stands, I have no desire to get to know you. As such, I would rather you stay away from me. I have warned you, so if you try and touch me again I will not consider myself responsible for what happens._ "

This infuriated Samson. " _Why you arrogant little reprobate_!" The man shouted as his right hand launched out towards the redhead. " _For such an insult I will-_!" The man suddenly stopped speaking as his wrist was caught in a vice grip, courtesy of Shirou's left hand. " _L-Let go_!"

" _I told you not to touch me_." Shirou stated with a glare.

'Reinforcement?' Bazett thought as she saw the glowing green lines on Shirou's hand. 'That was fast, no aria or anything.'

Noticing that Shirou was using reinforcement on his hand, Samson reinforced his own and tried to pull it out of the boy's grasp, to no avail.

" _I gave you a warning_." Shirou began, " _Now it is time for you to face the consequences_." The young Kotomine tightened his grip on the man's wrist and a loud crunching sound was heard.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" The black haired man screamed, falling to his knees in agony. His left hand reached up to hi right, either trying to sedate the pain or help rench his hand free.

'It tore right through Samson's reinforcement too. Kirei said that Shirou was talented, but this is surprising.'

Shirou looked at Samson with a passive yet irritated look, before releasing the man's hand, allowing the man to fall to his knees in pain. " _You are lucky that I consider myself to be a forgiving person, so I will cease at that, but if you show such insolence again, know that I will not hesitate to end the waste of existence that you refer to as your life."_ The golden eyes boy the turned to fuchsia haired girl. " _Bazett, do you mind meeting me in your tent later? I still have a few questions concerning what exactly it is that I'm supposed to do here."_

" _Uh, Sure."_ Bazett responded, somewhat off put by the sudden mood shift.

Shirou nodded and walked away. The executors and enforcers that had form a sort of pool around the boy to observe the event parted, giving him a path, but keeping the boy in clear sight.

Bazett looked at Shirou walk away before turning her gaze back to Samson, who was still on the ground. She thought to herself. 'Shirou-kun wasn't kidding about killing him, and he was so calm about it too. During that entire exchange, while he made it clear that Samson annoyed him, Shirou-kun didn't show any actual anger. Kirei-san, what kind of kid did you raise?'

 _ ***Two Hours Later***_

" _Alright, is everyone ready?"_ The same man from before spoke. " _It's pretty simple. Go in there, destroy any of the dead that you see, and if you run into the target, take him out immediately. You've all been assigned your partners. Now, move out!"_ The man shouted. All of the executors and enforcers charged into the village, ready for battle.

Bazett turned her face away from the speaker and looked down towards her young companion. "Okay, Shirou-kun, are you ready to-" The teenager then realized that the boy that she was suppose to be keeping an eye on was not in her sights. "Shirou-kun?" She looked around frantically. "Damn it! Where did he go!?"

 _ ***Meanwhile***_

Shirou ran through the streets at high speed. "If the target still has any sense of reason left, then he should be somewhere guarded and/or fortified." To his left, Shirou saw an undead. He immediately flicked his wrist in its direction and the creature suddenly fell back, a black key sticking out of its head. "But if not, then he might have gotten himself mixed in with all of these undead familiars, meaning it might take while to track him down." Another dead apostle appeared in front of the boy and lunged at the redhead in an attempt to bite him. Shirou dodged the attack by leaping over the former human and landing behind it. The glasses wearing boy then turned around and threw another black key at the creature, impaling it in the back of the head.

Shirou was about to continue searching through the city, until he noticed that he was surrounded on all sides by undead blood suckers. There were men, women children, and even a few animals. "It would appear that I have allowed myself to get into a particularly bad situation." He then reached inside of his jacket with both hands and pulled out six black keys, three in each hand, held between his fingers in a method that made them resemble claws. "If I make it out of this alive, I'm going to get a lecture when I make it back home." The boy spoke. The young Kotomine charged right into the horde of undead, ready to bring hell upon them.

 _ ***Meanwhile***_

"Damn it," Bazett said to herself as she ran through the the town, "Where did he go!?" She had been running around, trying to find the nine year old, auburn haired boy for at least ten minutes now. The Fuchsia haired teen was irritated. Not so much at Shirou…...Okay a little at Shirou. Bazett was mostly annoyed at herself.

The mission starts, and the first thing she does is lose the person she's watching. This had been her opportunity to prove the Kirei that she could be trusted. Making a good impression on Shirou was a bonus. But that was all in the toilet if she couldn't find the boy and fast. As it stood, while she had seen that the boy had quite the talent with reinforcement magecraft, he still had no real combat experience. If the kid ended up getting himself hurt, Bazett would never be able to forgive herself.

As she ran through and past the, she noticed a particularly large group of undead ghouls. "I don't have time for this." Bazett said to herself as she continued to run. That is until she saw say a familiar mop of rust colored hair among the horde. "No," Bazett softly spoke as she began to go towards the cluster of undead. "He would NOT be that stupid!"

 _ ***Back with Shirou***_

Shirou had to admit that this situation had gotten a little out of hand. Not only were ghouls attacking him from all sides, but more kept showing up every second. His saving grace, if he could call it that, was that they all seemed to lack any sort of cohesiveness, nearly being aware of each other's presence. This caused the to often run into and trip over each other, slowing them down a good deal. Unfortunately, Shirou was still outnumbered about 50-1, so his situation was not looking bright.

Shirou crouch down and collected himself to get a full understanding of his situation. 'Their numbers keep increasing. I still have a fourteen black keys left. But at this rate I'll have to use them all in the next couple minutes. I'm also block off on all sides, so trying to create an opening to escape isn't really an option.' An annoyed look appeared on Shirou's face. "This is irritating. It looks like I might not have a choice." Shirou reached up to his glasses, but right as he was about to touch them, the boy saw something.

In the back of the horde, a [Squelch] sound was heard as blood flew in the air. The sound continued to get closer as more blood flew into the air. When the carnage finally reached Shirou, the golden eyes boy was surprised by what he saw.

It was Bazett, her brown suit covered in blood and gore, especially on her gloves and shoes. She had evidently charged through the mob of undead all the way to the center, where Shirou was.

Upon seeing her, Shirou could only say one thing. "You know, that suit looks expensive. My guess is that's it's going to cost a lot to get all of those blood stains out."

The fuschia haired girl was not pleased by his words. As demonstrated her annoyance by picking Shirou up by his collar. "That's the first thing that you say to me!? How about an apology for running off like that!? Do you have any idea how worried I was!?"

Shirou looked at her blankly, not at all off put by the teenager's anger. "Oh, you were worried about me? I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention to cause you any stress. I figured that since you had more experience, I would just get in the way."

She examined his face for a minute bore putting the rust haired boy down and sighing. "When you apologize like that, I can't help but feel like there's no point in staying angry at you."

"There really isn't." Shirou said while dusting himself off. "It's not like it accomplishes anything."

Bazett sent a small glare towards the boy. "We'll talk about your manners later. For now let's take these things out." As she finished speaking, the Fraga got into a fighting stance.

"Alright then." Shirou agreed as he pulled out several more black keys. The duo the charged at into the mob of ghouls.

 _ ***A Few Minutes Later***_

Shirou and Bazett sat down on a bench and took deep breaths. "That took longer than expected." "Bazett announced.

"Well, we got threw them all. That's something." Shirou said. "And with the large number of ghouls around here, we can conclude that the dead apostle that's controlling the all is somewhere close. So now we just need to look around and figure out what building he's in." The two got up and looked around for a few minutes.

"None of the places around her look particularly well fortified." Bazett pointed out.

"Perhaps," Shirou countered. " but we've I got to remember that this man was a magus who got too deep into his research. Now, we need one just think about where he would go to do his research in peace."

Bazett thought for a moment. "Could he be in the town library?"

"Maybe?" Shirou answered. "but if I'm remembering the map right, the town library is a good two miles from here. I believe that he should be in that building over there." The auburn haired boy pointed to a large white building about a block over.

Bazett looked at the building in confusion. "Isn't that a school?"

"Yes" Shirou responded.

Seeing that he wasn't going to give her the detail, Bazett decided to ask. "So why do think he'd be in there?"

Shirou turned to her. "If it's any level above a primary school, then it should have access to its own library and laboratory. It seems like a good place to do research if you out of options." He pointed out.

Bazett shrugged. "I guess that makes sense." She relented. "Alright, let's go."

 _ ***Inside the School***_

Bazett and Shirou were walking around the old building. They had already run into a couple ghouls, but they had been dealt with pretty fast. The duo had already checked the library, so the next best option was the chemistry lab.

After a few minutes, the two found a door labeled "Lab".

"Are you ready?" Bazett asked as she put he hand on the door handle. Thanks response he got from Shirou was a simple nod as he pulled out two black keys. She pushed open the door and immediately got in a fighting stance, Shirou to her side.

Bazett surveyed the room. There were multiple long tables lined up. The shelves and cabinets that lines the wall we're all open, revealing various test tubes, beakers, graduated cylinders and so on. One table was full of various chemicals and compounds.

" _You know, it's considered rude to just barge into a room while someone is working."_ A voice said. Bazett's attention was drawn to a shadowy figure near end of the room. She immediately recognized the man's blonde hair and face, and, while his skin was paler, and his eyes were now red instead of green, he was definitely Anton Dumestski, their target.

" _Anton Dumestski_ " Bazett began. " _We've been sent by the Mage Association and the Church to_ -" She was cut off.

" _Yes, yes, I don't need your spiel._ " Anton said dryly. " _It's pretty much the exact same thing that the last group of Enforcers told me. You intend to kill me for the dangerous path that my research is taking etcetera etcetera_." He sighed. " _What an amazing bunch of self righteous fools. My research has the possibility of changing the whole way the world functions, and THEY TELL ME TO STOP!? THEY TRY AND KILL ME!?_ " The man took a deep breathe, calming himself down. " _Well I refuse to be just another rat on a wheel working for those ignorant whelps at Clocktower who are afraid of progress. So if you want to kill me, come at me and do it. Don't waste my time_."

" _If you insist_ " Bazett said as she charged at the man. Shirou opted to stay back and observe. As the fuschia haired girl got closer to her target, Anton pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at thr Fraga. The object hit Bazett in the stomach before she even had time to put up a defence. Thanks to the runes on her clothing, she was uninjured for the most part, but the way she grabbed her stomach showed that whatever had hit her hurt. She looked at where the object had landed and was surprised by what she saw. " _A rock"._

She was correct. She had been hit by a rock. It was a small stone only about an inch in diameter.

" _You know of my brand of magecraft correct?"_ Anton spoke. " _It centers around manipulating an object's kinetic momentum to affect its velocity. By using it, I can send a small stone like that flying at almost 400 kilometers per hour. By the time you've realized that I've thrown something, it's already too late."_ He spoke calmly.

Is that it?" Bazett asked. " _If that's all you've got then I can handle it."_ She activated several more runes on her clothing to up her defensive capabilities.

" _So I see."_ The dead apostle reached into his ther pocket. " _One you can take, but how about twenty."_ He pulled his hand out of his pocket and it was full of small pebbles. Due to their significantly smaller size, he could fit a lot more in his hand. He threw the handful of pebbles at Bazett.

This time, the enforcer had seen the blonde man reach into his pocket and, knowing what was coming, braced herself beforehand, moving her arms to protect her face.

The pebbles flew like a sideways rain of destruction. There were so many that Anton couldn't properly aim them, so he just threw them at Bazett's direction. They broke windows, beakers, and test tubes. Some of them lodged themselves sin tables, chairs, and cabinets.

However, the fuschia haired girl stood strong through the onslaught. She slowly took steps forwards.

Anton began to sweat. "Persistent, aren't you." He spoke. " _Alright, whatever you did to that clothing of yours, it seems to defend against blunt impacts, but how about something sharper?"_ The dead apostle picked up a large beaker. He immediately smashed the glass on the table, shattering it into a dozen pieces. The blonde haired man quickly scooped the pieces up, not minding how they cut into his hands, and immediately chucked them at the executor.

The sharp shards of glass moved immense speed.

Bazett stood firm, ready to take the assault. However, she was surprised when the first piece of glass punctured through her defenses and lodged itself firmly in her left for arm. In her shock, her defenses lessened slightly, allowing the following shards to penetrate her flesh. They lodged themselves in her arms and legs.

Bazett was forced to a knee as in pain. " _H-How?"_ She gasped out.

Anton smiled. " _Well it's actually pretty simple. First of all, while the glass is more fragile the pebbles I used a minute ago, it's also much sharper making it more suited towards piercing flesh. And while under standard conditions, the glass would break apart when it comes in contact with that reinforced outfit of yours, a little reinforcement on my part evened things out."_ The man looked down at his hand, watching as his dead apostle physiology healed the cutest on his palm. " _But it's not just glass that's available. This room is full of tools and equipment that I can use_." The former human opened the drawer next to him. He then reached in with his left hand and pulled out five metal scalpels. The man smirked. " _Look, I found three scalpels in this drawer alone, not to mention the ones that I grabbed earlier. Now, let's see how many I need to end this little dance of ours."_

He moved one of his scalpels from his left hand to his right. After some quick reinforcement, he threw it at Bazett.

Using what strength her legs still had, the Fraga lunged to the right. Her movement was stopped when she hit the table three feet away from her original position. She got ready to move again, but the girl was unprepared when another scalpel lodged itself in her foot. "Ahh!" She exclaimed in pain. She screamed again as another scalpel implanted itself in there shoulder and one in her sternum.

" _Well, it seems that this is the end for you."_ Anton played with the scalpel in his hand, spinning it in the air and catching it on the way down. Deciding to end things, Anton threw the scalpel straight at Bazett's head. Unable to dodge, Bazett closed her eyes and relented herself to death.

She however was surprised when a she heard the sound of metal hitting metal in front of her. She opened her eyes and saw Shirou standing in front of her, broken black key in his hand. "Shirou-kun! What the hell are you doing! Didn't I tell you to stay back!?"

Shirou didn't turn around to look at her. "You did say that, and you were going to die. You dying would have made me feel bad, so I intervened." He stated as if it was obvious.

" _Oh so the boy decides to play now."_ The dead apostle stated. " _No matter, this won't take long_." He threw another scalpel at Shirou, who used a black key to deflect it. He scowled and threw two more. Shirou deflected the first one, but the second managed to cut his shoulder.

The red head quickly grabbed Bazett and moved her behind a one of the lab benches. "You should probably stay back here." He said to her as he turned the corner to face their adversary.

" _What!? Damn it Shirou! Listen to me! You can't take this guy on alone! You're just a kid!_ " Bazett exclaimed, so frantic that she didn't bother switching to Japanese.

Apparently ignoring her, Shirou charged forward.

Anton, getting annoyed, pulled another hand full of pebbles out of his pocket and threw them at Shirou.

Seeing the incoming threat, the redhead ducked behind a lab bench. He looked around him as stones flew through the air at insane speeds. He sighed. "I'm not going to be able to get close to him like this." After the assault of pebble died down, Shirou pulled a black key out of his clothing and looked around the corner. He kept another black key in his other hand just in case Anto approach him.

Anton hadn't moved. The man was holding another scalpel, no doubt waiting for Shirou to come out.

Shirou swung his arm out to throw the black key at the dead apostle from behind the bench. However, before he could release the blade, a scalpel impaled itself into the back of his hand. "Geh." Shirou flinched at the sudden pain. His black key fell out of his hand.

" _Do you think you're clever boy?"_ Anton asked. " _I know where you're hiding an I'm smart enough not to walk into a potential trap. All I need to do wait for you to come out to try and attack me."_

Shirou pulled back behind the desk again. With a small grunt of pain, he pulled the scalpel out of his hand. He looked at the wound. It wasn't too bad, but but the scalpel has managed to cut through two of the bones in his hand. Continuing to use that hand would definitely be a trial. While he had learned a small bit healing magecraft from his father, the boy wasn't yet proficient enough to use it mid-battle. Shirou thought about his current situation and then sighed. "It looks like I'm going to have to use them after all."

 _ ***Flashback***_

 _Gilgamesh stood in front of Shirou in the dojo underneath the church._

 _Shidou was only seven at the time of this conversation, so naturally he was a decent bit smaller then he was now._

" _Listen well Shirou." She began. "Do you know why you wear those glasses?" She asked the boy. She stood over him confidently._

" _No, not really." The redhead said. "The old man said that eyes were damaged in the fire, but not much more than that." Shirou knew not to take anything that his father said at face value._

 _Gilgamesh looked annoyed. ""Damaged" is not the proper word. "Mutated" I far more accurate. It's probably do to them being exposed to the flames of holy Grail a few months ago." Gilgamesh smirked. "What Kirei so conveniently never informed you of was that the same fire was magical in origin. It was the results of the contents of the corrupted do holy Grail bathing the land."_

" _Wait, the Holy Grail?" Shirou asked. "Do you mean the same one that Jesus Christ supposedly drank from?"_

" _No," Gilgamesh answered briskly. "Admittedly, "Holy Grail" is a misnomer. It is unfit for a king to waste time going through details. I have no issue leaving that explanation to Kirei. In simple terms, the holy Grail which I speak of is a powerful magical artifact capable of granting any wish. As such, every drop of mud that came out of the grail contained far more prana then an average mage. All those who were touched by the contents and survived we're able to draw from it's power, changing their bodies as a result. Kirei was given a new heart and I myself was changed to a unique kind of being, being able to keep all of my abilities as a heroic spirit while also gaining a true physical form rather than temporary vessel composed of prana."_

 _Shirou just sat there and listened to the information quietly. There were a lot of things that Shirou didn't really understand, but he knew that the blonde woman hated to be interrupted. He understood that she'd let it go once or twice, but the boy had no intention of testing her limits._

" _While I do not believe that you were exposed directly to the mud if the grail, you were heavily exposed to the flames that it created. While the effect was certainly less than it was to Kirei of myself, it seems that the prana in those flames affected your magic circuits, namely the ones in your eyes." She pointed at Shirou's glasses. "When you take glasses off, does anything change? Does anything happen?"_

 _Shirou thought about it for a moment. "Well, I guess things become slower, they become a lot more clear too."_

" _I see." Gilgamesh placed her hand to her chin and though for a moment. "Alright then."_

" _Your going to pull something out of that golden gate thing use, aren't you?" Shirou sudden asked._

 _Gilgamesh looked surprised. "It's called the Gate of Babylon. How did you know that I was about to activate it?" She asked._

" _I've seen you use it a couple of times before." Shirou said. "Whenever you do, your eyes tense just a little bit."_

 _Gilgamesh looked at Shirou with a calculating stare. She then activated her gate and pulled out an odd looking piece of gold. "This is an icosahedron." She said. "A 20 sided die in simple terms. There is a tick mark on every side of this that indicates a number." She showed the polyhedron to Shirou, making sure that he got a good look at how she was holding it. "Now, I'm going to toss this up in the air. Before it hits the ground you are going to guess what number it lands on. Understood?"_

" _Yeah, I get it." The redhead stated._

" _Alright then." She said. With a casual toss, the king of heroes threw the polyhedron into the air._

" _Three" Shirou said immediately. The die descended down to the ground. After it made contact, with the floor it rolled around slightly before it stopped. The number on top was a three._

 _They did this a few more times, Shirou not getting single guess wrong, before Gilgamesh was seemingly satisfied. "I thought as much." The golden king said. She leaned forward, placing her face directly in front of the shirou's and looked into his eyes. "You don't seem to possess mystic eyes. If I were to guess I would say that you posses so variation of pure eyes."_

" _Pure eyes?" Shirou inquired, not at all concerned with his proximity to the king of heroes._

 _Gilgamesh stood up. "While mystic eyes are eyes that allow their possessor to affect and change the world around them, pure eyes allow the one who possesses them to perceive information that normally cannot be seen. From what I can tell, your pure eyes allow you a type of clairvoyance. You can accurately perceive an object's trajectory. And judging by how you predicted why I was going to do earlier you also instinctively notice small changes around you, such as unconscious movements of one's body, to predict the actions of others."_

" _That sounds convenient." Shirou stated._

" _Perhaps." Gilgamesh said. "Which is exactly why I forbid you from using them outside of training and situations where you life is in danger. I don't want out becoming dependant on those eyes. That would turn them into a weakness that others could exploit._

" _I understand." The redhead replied._

 _ ***End Flashback***_

Shirou closed his eyes. Slowly, he reach up to his face and slowly, he removed his glasses. He then opened his eyes again, revealing two glowing, golden orbs. He sat in into a kneeling position. "Alright it's time to begin." He held a black key in his undamaged hand and ran out from behind the bench.

Anton saw the boy and immediately threw a scalpel in the redhead's direction.

Shirou tilted his head to the right, allowing the metal blade to wiz harmlessly by his ear to the and implant itself into the wall behind him.

" _What!"_ Anton exclaimed as he threw another.

Shirou deflected the scalpel with the black key in his left hand.

Anton threw five more scalpels, each one getting deflected or dodged by the red head. Anton the notice that his back had hit something. He realized that it was the wall. He had been subconsciously backing up as the boy got closer. The dead apostle reached for another scalpel only to realize that he had run out. " _Dammit!"_ Shirou was getting closer.

The man reached into his pocket and grabbed more small rocks. He threw them all at Shirou like he did before.

Unlike last time however, Shirou could see exactly how the rocks would fly. He stopped. Shirou then sent more prana into the black key, enlarging the blade. With masterful skill, he then used the enlarged blade to block or deflect every stone that would have hit him and allowed everyone that he could avoid to fly by him harmlessly. The whole time, he never stopped his charge.

" _The hell!?"_ Anton exclaimed as he saw Shirou come closer. He jumped back and prepared to grab the pebbles that he still had on his pockets, but suddenly, a ray of blue light pierced his shoulder. "Agh!". He looked towards the direction that the light came from and saw Bazett.

The girl had managed to get to the other went of the room just outside of The are that the rocks hit. Shirou had apparently provided a foot diversion for her to move. She was standing with a single fist pointed at him in a punching manner. "Fragarch" she said before she was forced down to a knee by her injuries.

A black key impaled itself into Anton's leg before he had a chance to act. "Ah!" He exclaimed as he fell down to a knee. Anton looked up to see Shirou standing over him, black keys in hand. Apparently the attack of Bazett's had been a distraction for Shirou to get in closer. " _H-hold on!"_ Anton said hastily. " _If you let me live, I can-"_ He was cut off by a black key impaling him through the head.

" _I can't see myself having any interest in anything that you could offer me."_ Shirou said in English as he allowed the black keys to destroy the dead apostle's body. It took only a few minutes before the body was completely turned to dust. And like that, Anton Dumestski was dead.

The redhead turned back to Bazett. She looked at the boy in pure shock. The kid was better then she had given him credit for. And he didn't even seem to flinch after taking someone's life. 'That boy must have seen something really terrifying.' She concluded mentally. She shook her head. She could worry about that later.

Now that Anton was dead all of his familiars should be dying as well. The job was done. It was time to report back. "Good job Shirou-kun. I must be out of shape if I need a kid to save me." Bazett said as she approach the boy. Her injuries caused her to trip.

Luckily, Shirou was ready to catch her. The Place her arm over his shoulder. "You shouldn't worry too much about it. That attack of yours allowed me to get inclose. I only had two black keys left, so I needed the chance that you provided. Come on." Shirou said. "Let's get back."

* * *

 **The reference earlier about the slug man was talking about King Piccolo from Dragon Ball.**

 **Sorry about the long wait. I honestly spent way longer than I should trying to figure out how the fight should go. Personally, I don't think the last half of he chapter turned out as well as it could have, but I did what I could.**

 **Just to make it clear, Bazett is not nearly as skilled as she'll be during the grail war. I'm setting her age at 6 years older then Shirou, so right now she's only 15. Come the grail war, she'll be 23 and ready to kick ass.**


End file.
